Friday, March 26, 2010

There is never anything ordinary about an ordinary day

Beauty spotted this morning.... These remarkable blooms are on these trees framing the final walkway into where I'm doing contract work at the moment. Unlike the fabulous cherry blossom trees on a different spot on this property, these are a startling bright white. I don't know what they are, but I do enjoy them as I duck to get past them.

An uneventful morning commute can even be interesting to the observer. Take today, for instance.

"Two things, one I forget..." - introduction to a cell phone call made by a guy on Skytrain, fancy suit, worn bulky lawyer's briefcase, probably sleep deprived or something.

"I hate it when these things fall out!!!" - loud exclamation by girl sitting at the front of the Skytrain looking out the window, many people turned to see what had happened, it turns out she was talking on the phone and her earpiece fell out. And she yelled at it.

"Hurry up, you're wasting my time!" - same girl, to her friend she was talking to on the phone; I couldn't help but smile, but it did seem a little cruel - but the friend obviously protested, because this was followed by "No! Not you! My cell phone, you idiot!"

"We're working on a building that got torched" - a guy updating his buddy on his cell phone as he walked down the Skytrain stairs.

Two girls crossing 7 lanes of traffic at Lougheed and Willingdon, arm in arm, red duotang folder held between them, they are both reading the document and discussing it, not glancing up once. They're crossing with the light, but the trucks that fly through there, jeeze....

Guy driving by on a scooter, both hands on the controls, a cup of Tim Horton's coffee held between his teeth. When he finishes his illegal U-turn (in the middle of the same intersection as above), he reaches up and carefully brings the cup down into one hand, as he drives along. Um, those little plastic lids pop off sometimes, don't they? (sure wish I'd had my camera out!)

Girl at busstop: reading her book and barely notices when her bus comes, notices at the last minute, and needs to sprint to get the driver's attention as she's the only one catching that bus (that girl would be me! ;-)

As I am crossing the street after I get off the bus, I am crossing a street that runs perpendicular to Canada Way. Panel travelling along Canada Way van turns right, going past the first two lanes, past the meridian, then turning right into the two lanes of traffic that go the other way, in order to scoot around a right turn lane that takes him back along Canada Way in the same direction he was driving. No, he wasn't bypassing a light, as he had a green light at the time. I. do. not. understand.

Then, imagine my delight, as I neared my destination, walking amongst office buildings, the guy coming directly towards me is smiling. Right at me. Like a long last friend. He has flowers in his hand. "Oh!! For me?" I exclaim.... Flower courier guy laughs, and carries on with his day. Some things are just irresistible, you know?

Just an ordinary day.

Yesterday was pretty ordinary too, just:

Getting up to tell the bus driver that it was raining in the back of his bus. It was pouring out, and the emergency skylite thing was wide open. He laughed, said "I guess it wasn't raining earlier", thanked me - then got up at the next bus stop and closed it. It was 10am and it had been raining for hours, how many people had said nothing to this point?

As I got off said bus, I looked down, and the little purple hat from the day before was gone. Washed away by the rain running down the street by the curb, I suppose. I actually look for it as I walk along. Then, it pops into my head: an entire kid's story written from the perspective of the hat, or the little creature living in a wee boat under the hat. Only I could come up with that. No, actually my sweet sissy could come up with that too. I can actually imagine her embellishing the story when she reads this....